In Columbus, Clinton Tears Trump Tower Down, Brick By Golden Brick

For the second time in eight days, Ohio got an opportunity to hear the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, frame her GOP counterpart as someone only out for himself, whose finger should not be on the nuclear button and whose hands shouldn’t be on the economy.

Hillary Clinton spoke at a rally in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, June 21st, 2016. Seated behind her are Ted Strickland, running for Senate against Rob Portman, and David Pepper, Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Her portrayal of the Donald as temperamentally unfit to be president, whose business decisions are chock full of deception as decades of legal records document, coincided with a new report from Mark Zandi, John McCain’s economic adviser in 2008, that all but predicts the New York billionaire and business folk hero could pilot the nation into another great recession if his economic ideas are enacted.

“A few weeks ago, I said his foreign policy proposals and reckless statements represent a danger to our national security. But you might think that because he has spent his life as a businessman, he’d be better prepared to handle the economy,” she told a small gathering of about 300 who gathered at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center. “Well it turns out, he’s dangerous there, too. Just like he shouldn’t have his finger on the button, he shouldn’t have his hands on our economy.”

Clinton Deconstructs Trump Tower

On Monday a week ago, Hillary Clinton was in east Cleveland, where her remarks were dedicated to reflecting on the mass deaths in Orlando a few days earlier at the hands of a gunman wielding an AR-15 assault rifle who killed 49 and wounded scores more. In Cleveland, Mrs. Clinton talked about Donald Trump’s statements on immigration in general and Muslims in particular. She talked about commonsense gun control laws, which became center stage in Washington as Democrats filibustered hard enough to bring some measures to the floor for a vote. Unfortunately, even though more than 90 percent of the nation is for expanding background checks to certain people on no-fly lists or suspected of terrorist activity, four measures went down to defeat, including one amendment offered by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Ohio’s other senator in Washington, Rob Portman, lined up with Republicans in falling short of the 60-vote threshold.

A week later, with more distance from the gruesome freshness of the historic tragedy in Orlando, Fla, Hillary Clinton spent more than 30 minutes Tuesday inside a tropic-tempertured auto bay not far from the State Capitol disassembling the tower of hollow stories Mr. Trump has erected for himself that millions more have blindly bought into as valid.

In Ohio the two candidates are tied because Donald Trump has gone down while Hillary Clinton has gone up. Gallup polling shows a similar drifting downward for Mr. Trump’s unfavorable rating over the last 45 days to those of Mrs. Clinton that have held steady. It’s a different story nationally, as a two new polls has Hillary leading the Donald. One from Monmouth University has Mrs. Clinton ahead by seven points while a Reuters/Ipsos poll has the Democrat up over the Republican by nine points.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump staggers his way forward, playing bumper car with the Republican Party and leading king makers like U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan. Rep. Ryan ran as Mitt Romney’s VP pick in 2012, so he knows about the effort and money that it takes to run a general campaign because he did so and lost to President Obama 51-47 percent. Now caught in a difficult spot given Mr. Trump’s so far untamed candidacy, he’s encouraging Republicans to “vote their conscience” when it comes to the presidency and/or down ticket races.

One of those down ticket races is tied up in Ohio, between first-term Republican incumbent Rob Portman and his seasoned challenger, former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. Mr. Strickland was on hand today along with Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper to pump up the volume on Mrs. Clinton and those who will support her, like Mr. Strickland who can help return control of the Senate in Washington, boosting President Clinton’s ability to push forward a progressive agenda should she win in November.

In what was promoted as a major economic policy address, tearing down Trump tower in Ohio’s capital city today wasn’t much of a stretch for Mrs. Clinton. Her deconstructive architectural skills were boosted by one set of facts after another—using Donald’s own words for clarity—that when reassembled built her case that the TV reality show star’s tower of PR is the produce of a skilled and practiced corporate conman who always makes money even if everyone else involved with him loses theirs.

“If Donald Trump were to get behind the wheel of the American economy, he would very likely drive us off a cliff, and working families would bear the brunt of the impact of lost jobs, lost savings, and lost livelihoods,” Mrs. Clinton said to a small crowd of about 300 at Fort Hayes education and training facility. The natural conclusion she arrived at by looking at Donald Trump’s policy proposals is that they are rash and demonstrate reckless temperament. His record in the private sector is about doing harm to working families and small businesses.

Brick By Golden Brick

Brick by golden brick, from the Donald’s plan for Wall Street to his approach to national debt to his tax plan and what his ideas about the economy and how millions of Americans could be hurt by it, Hillary Clinton tore down Trump tower.

“The King of Debt has no real plan for making college debt payable back or making college debt free, this is a crisis that affects so many of our people. He has no credible plan for rebuilding our infrastructure, apart from the wall that he wants to build. Personally I’d rather spend our money on rebuilding our schools or modernizing our energy grid. He has no ideas how to strengthen Medicare or expand Social Security – in fact, his tax plan would endanger both. He has no real strategy for creating jobs, just a string of empty promises. But then maybe we shouldn’t expect better from someone whose most famous words are, ‘You’re fired.’ He has no clean energy plan, even though that’s where many of the jobs of the future will come from and it is the key to a safer, healthier planet. He just says that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese. Well I’ll give him this – it is a lot easier to say a problem doesn’t exist than it is to actually try to solve it. And of course he has no plan for helping urban and rural communities facing entrenched poverty and neglect,” she said.

Mark Zandi’s report said that if Trump got his way he would lead our economy into a ‘lengthy recession’ that would cost millions of jobs, reduce growth, stagnate middle class incomes, and explode the debt.

Hillary Clinton wants voters to contrast Trump as president during tough times when compared to former presidents, like Franklin Delano Roosevelt who lead the nation out of the Great Depression. Or to the current president, Barack Obama, who defeated her in 2008 as the nation was free falling into the Great Recession, only to inherit a Republican congress dedicated to his defeat.

“Now just imagine if you can, Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office the next time America faces a crisis,” Mrs. Clinton said with a look of disbelief. “Imagine him being in charge when your jobs and savings are at stake. Is this who you want to lead us in an emergency? Someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who’d likely be on Twitter attacking reporters or bringing the whole regulatory system down on his critics, when he should be focused on fixing what’s wrong? “Would he even know what to do?”

Hillary Clinton works the rope line Monday in Columbus.

Following her usual routine, she left the dais to shake hands, thank those who attended and take yet another selfie with an admiring supporter along the rope line. Hillary Clinton left Columbus and traveled to North Carolina, where she will deliver another critical assessment of Donald Trump’s lack of intelligible plans even some Republicans cannot reasonably defend without sacrificing their honor by doing so.

60 Seconds Ohio

Columbus attorney and former Ohio House Member John Patrick Carney brought his wife and children to Hillary Clinton’s rally today. He tells “60 Seconds” why he believes Ohio will vote for Clinton this fall.